need solenoid , ideas anyone ?

[gwaco]

i need some ideas on where to get a soleniod , i can be either 12 volt d.c or 120 a.c. . i would like it to be normally in open position when current is off . they need to be able to fit to a 1/2" pipe (even if i have to mod it somehow ) andif possible a valve that can work with 1" pipe . so that is one valve to fit 1/2" pipe and two that fit 1" pipe . the half inch one will be used to turn the air off to the skimmer via a float switch - to a relay - too the solenoid . the float switch will be mounted inside the collection container at a desired level , with when hit will click in the relay which inturn will close the air valve . the 1" ones will be used on the sump to tank returns . these will switch between the two returns so that only one pipe will be fed at any given time . ideas anyone ????

[three90s&125sump]

Solinoids are cheap you can buy a Ford solinoid good for 200 amps at AutoZone for about 7 bucks. The valve are what cost the money. why don't you just buy an auto top off. Instead of shutting of your top off pump it can be set to turn off your skimmer pump.

[Geoff]

on my semi-auto water changer i have a couple of different solenoids in use and both work fine. one is way to small for you, it is for 1/4" line only, but the other is just a 3/4" sprinkler valve i got from HD. so far it has done the job just fine in its application, which is very similar to what you want. i have a float switch in the water change fill tank. when the water hits it, it switches the sprinkler valve off. it has been working fine for the past 3 months no problems.

it is not a quick turn off. it takes about 3 second to shut off completely. it also seems to leak only when water is turn off behind it than turned back on. this is only for a couple of seconds. this only occurs when i am refilling my kalk reactor and i turn off the auto top off feed line (it is the same feed line for the auto water changer). for only $15 i think that it can not be beat. it can also run on anything from 12v to 24v.

HTH,

G~

[gwaco]

thanks for the responses !
three 90s , i guess i should have stated things more clearly , what i needed was a complete solenoid /valve . sorry for any confusion .
geoff , i tried a 3/4" irrigation valve from h.d. , i even bought the 24 volt power supply . i wired them up , plugged it in and got nothing but a buzzing from the soleniod . i could blow thru it whether it was plugged in or not . which got me to thinking whether this would even work anyways since i needed the valve to remain open with no power and close when power is on ! i could have worked the float switch into power always on by flipping the sensor over , so that way power to the valve is constant and when the level reached the shut off point it would cut power to the relay and solenoid/ valve . i just was not sure how well those soleniods would last with constant power . maybe i'm just not understanding a irrigation valve well enough . when you take one out of the box should it be in a closed position , and you shouldn't be able to blow thru it ? maybe i just got a bad valve !
but on to the second part with the one inch valves . geoff was it you who did the sprinkler valve set-up to alternate flow?
i was thinking of using on the sump to tank returns . i've looked at some of the controllers and see that they can be set a 15 minute increments .
another option would be to use the valves thru a dp relay . any ideas ?
last would be to just buy an ocean motions squirt or something , but theres no fun in that !

[Geoff]

the valves need a bit of back pressure in order to close. i thought the same thing when i first tried them. without back pressure then they are open.

this is also the reason why they leak for about 2 seconds when i shut off the water feed to the system. no back pressure so the valve opens. when pressure is restored the valve shuts properly.

i know mine has had no problems being powered for 3 hours. has not gotten warm at all. my 1/4" solenoid gets quite warm when left powered for more than an hour. with only 24v going through them i think they should be able to be powered for extremely long periods of time.

HTH,

G~

[gwaco]

o.k. that would explain it . i took the darn thing apart and just was kind of dumbfounded ! now i know it won't work as a air valve as there would be no back preesure . i'm still gonna try them on the sump to tank returns as i priced the o.m. yesterday and just have to many other things to get right now . geoff any idea how long the irrigation valves will last with saltwater running thru them . anything i can do to improve reliability ? have you found anything inert that might replace the metal rod inside it ?
thanks .

[Geoff]

hmm, i thought the one i took apart was all plastic. i may have to double check that. i am not super concerned with rust as far as bad things that can go into a tank. i would be more worried about aluminum corroding than rust. then again this is being nitpicky.

it would not surprise me if it was stainless steel anyway. i might sacrifice one to double check also. the one i am using now is on the FW feed side, so not sure if it would show any rusting.

what brand of valve did you get? have you tried looking on their website for materials?

G~

[gwaco]

i'd have to go look but i'm pretty sure it was rainbird . ya' know i guess it wouldn't be no different than having a rusty shaft on a power head .
i also believe the valve i got was plastic . i will double check in a minute !

[gwaco]

well good thing i went to look at it ! i left the r.o. water filling the jugs and wouldn't you know it , it was over flowing .
i did check the valve and it was all plastic , but the brand was lawn genie .

[Geoff]

i remember when i was looking for one, there was a heavy one and a light one. i went with the light one thinking it was prolly all plastic.

good catch on the RO water!!! need to slap a float switch on that bad boy pretty quickly.

G~